if you are part of a couple and only one of you has reached the qualifying age for state pension credit, for your application to be assessed under the pensioner rules it should be the person who has reached pension credit age who is the CTR applicant.

You can find information about the qualifying age for state pension credit on the GOV.UK website.

If you are not treated as a pensioner for CTR calculations

Top tips

There are special rules about how your income is treated when calculating CTR if you are not treated as a pensioner.

The local authority will need to work out your income as a weekly amount to see if you are entitled to CTR and, if you are, how much CTR you are entitled to. Your income includes your partner's income.

If your income is the same as, or less than, the amount the government says you need to live on (called your applicable amount) you will receive maximum CTR, but there may be a deduction for any non-dependants who live in your household.

If your income is more than your applicable amount, work out the difference between them. Now work out 20 per cent of the difference figure and take this amount from your maximum CTR less any deduction for non-dependants. The result is the amount of your CTR.

Water and sewerage charges

Don’t forget that you may still have to pay water and sewerage charges, collected with your council tax.

How your income is calculated for CTR

Income usually means money that you get regularly, periodically or as a series of payments. It includes things like earnings and certain benefits, pensions and maintenance. Some income is disregarded, or partly disregarded. This means that all or part of it is ignored, so it is not included in the calculation of your income for CTR. You may still be asked to declare it when applying for a CTR. There are special rules if you get Universal Credit.

Usually, only income that you hold now is counted, but there are special rules that can be used to treat you as still having income or capital that you have given away, or money that you are entitled to but you have not applied for.

To work out how your earnings from employment affects your CTR, your local authority must:

decide whether or not a payment counts as earnings

work out your gross earnings

deduct income tax, national insurance and certain pension contributions

if you are not paid weekly, convert the result into a weekly amount.

There are special rules for self-employed income.

If you have capital between £6,000 and £16,000, for example savings, your local authority will treat it as a kind of income called tariff income.

The rules about calculating your income for CTR are complicated. Your local authority website may have a tool that you can use, but if you want more information about how income is treated for CTR, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau - where to get advice.

Income calculation if you get Universal Credit (UC)

If you, or your partner, get Universal Credit (UC), the local authority must normally use the figure for your income that the DWP used to calculate your Universal Credit, provided either by the DWP, or by you from your UC award information.

But if your income is 'subject to frequent change', the local authority can instead estimate your income over a period of up to one year. If you do not agree with how your income has been estimated or do not understand how the average was worked out you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau - where to get advice.